The White Wolf Tengu
by UnendingEmpire
Summary: Not much to see here. Just the average and unpredictable life of Momiji Inubashiri. Really, that's all. Still want to read it? Be my guest
1. Chapter 1

**I wanted a big change of pace, or to be more accurate, three of them.**

**1: I wanted to write a character who received little to no attention in my time as a writer, and Momiji fit the bill. She was a supporting protagonist for about five chapters in my first fanfic, but even then, she didn't do that much. Writing for Momiji also meant I'd have access to Youkai Mountain and the tengu city; two places I almost never write at. Youkai Mountain is usually there for just a little bit, and the tengu city I've used but once, ever, so it had to be Momiji.**

**2: I wrote it in first-person. I want to try and make this more about the character than any plot that may appear, and first-person writing is (in my opinion) the best way to do that. That way, we're seeing it from Momiji's perspective; not mine whose attention needs to cover everything at once~**

**3: The pace in this fanfic is slower than all other fanfics so far, even being more relaxed than my Youkai Temple fanfic. It's also the first thing I've written in some time (not counting my recent Daiyousei fic) that is purely about ONE character, if not the first one ever (again not counting Dai-chan) which is naturally a big pace change.**

**So, I hope you enjoy seeing how I work at a more relaxed pace~**

* * *

"It's hot out today," I told myself. It was usually hot in summer, though, and there wasn't really much I could do about it. But I couldn't just head back home and cool off, either. No way! I was a tengu guard, given the task of keeping intruders off of Youkai Mountain and chasing off the ones that decided to try and climb the mountain. It was probably one of the most enviable jobs for a tengu. Aya, my superior, also happened to be a guard, but she also did the photography, writing, editing, and producing for that Bunbunmaru Newspaper nobody reads. Once in a blue moon, on days where guard duty got especially boring, I would read it just to see what was going on beyond this cozy mountain. It seemed that there was always some kind of incident happening somewhere, with the red-white miko from the shrine on the other side of Gensokyo was trying to resolve, or more recently, Sanae, who lived in the shrine up here on the mountain. There were two gods there, and one was a sky goddess, so in exchange for faith, Kanako would give us good weather. I usually wished during the summer that she could also make it a bit cooler; the heat was really irritating for my ears.

"Momiji!" I'd recognize that voice anywhere. It was Aya, no doubt with either important orders, the newest edition of the Bunbunmaru (since I was her subordinate, she gave them to me for free~) or a big lump of boredom and a desire to bug/tease me a little. Since the last edition of the Bunbunmaru was handed out yesterday, and she wasn't in her usual journalist outfit, I could only assume she had some kind of orders for me. Today she was in her guard uniform, and was carrying her weapon of choice; a fan that boosted her control of the wind. I preferred swords myself, but sometimes I wondered what controlling the wind was like…

I wouldn't let myself get distracted, though. Once Aya hit the ground like the black and white blur she was when she was flying, I got my already straight posture as straight as it could go, complete with tail sticking straight up. "What's up, Aya?"

"Tenma-sama wants to see you immediately!"

"T-Tenma-sama?" The big boss of all the tengu? The only tengu (or kappa, or _any _mountain youkai for that matter) who ever fought an oni and won? Our charismatic leader who threw weekly parties with the goddesses at the Moriya Shrine? _That_ Tenma-sama? All of a sudden, I was shaking and nervous. As skilled as I was at being a tengu guard, it was a little embarrassing to say that I wasn't really that high up in the ranks for my skill level. A rough draft of the tengu ranking chain went a little bit like…

Tenma-sama

About six other tengu

A few dozen more tengu, plus Aya-sama (she insists that I just call her Aya)

About a hundred other tengu

Me, plus a few hundred tengu guards

Everybody who wasn't mentioned yet

…what did Tenma-sama want with me? Should I have asked Aya? Or was I supposed to wait and let Tenma-sama herself tell me what she wanted? My brain was so occupied with thinking that my body forgot to move, or even acknowledge these orders that were coming straight from the top. Tenma-sama lived in a big mansion at the top of the tengu city, which occupied the tip of Youkai Mountain, effectively making her mansion the highest point in Gensokyo. I'd seen the mansion once or twice, and it's Chinese-inspired architecture stood out in the tengu city where the architecture was more Japanese in style, but never did I expect to actually go there, much less with a reason to go! _Especially_ when that reason was that I had orders from Tenma-sama herself to go and see her!

"You alright over there," Aya asked me. "You look about ready to pop like a little furry balloon or something~"

"H-Huh? Oh, sorry. I wasn't really ready for that; orders from Tenma-sama herself was one of the last things I was expecting to hear." Scratching the back of my right ear (it always itched in hot weather; part of why I didn't like summer that much) and turning to face the top of the mountain, I finished "I'll be up there as soon as I can. I almost want to ask if you know what she wants to see me about, but…I also don't know if Tenma-sama wanted to explain it to me herself."

"You're pretty serious about this," Aya said. Then she put her hand on her chin. I've been around Aya long enough that I know this; when she puts her hand on her chin, it means she's ready to start teasing somebody. I guess she couldn't help trying to make me laugh a little bit to break the tension. Was it that obvious that I was so tense? "You're really cute when you're serious~"

"No I'm not! When I'm serious, I'm serious!" Even if I knew she was teasing me, I could never stop myself from reacting like I wasn't actually being teased. I think that's part of why Aya enjoys teasing me so much; because even if I try to tease her back, I'll just say something to try and defend myself from her teasing.

"If you say so, cutie~ You should probably head up to Tenma-sama's place soon; she told me it was important that you see her as soon as you can."

"Oh! I'll be right there!"

* * *

**Tenma-sama****'****s mansion****…**

Every time I looked at this place, I felt a little intimidated. Just the path to her mansion alone was bigger than my house, and then Tenma-sama's mansion was…_massive_. If I didn't know better, calling it a mansion was just Tenma-sama being modest; this place seemed more like a castle to me. There were guards along the path to the mansion, none of them paying me any mind. They must have known that Tenma-sama was expecting me. The second I started reaching for the door, a realization struck me. I'd never seen her with my own eyes! In fact, I'd never seen her at all. Tenma-sama didn't leave her mansion often, and when she did, she was fast enough to not be seen by even other tengu. She didn't have any special powers, not unlike myself, but her speed was incredible. Tenma-sama put even Aya to shame if the rumors I heard were true.

_KNOCK! KNOCK!_

My hands were shaking out of control. Being here, at Tenma-sama's mansion because she asked to see _me_ was one of the greatest honors for any tengu. Even Aya rarely saw her, and she was really high up in the tengu ranks. Some people said that Tenma-sama was a hikikomori, and others said that she just didn't really have any reason to come out. I heard that once, long ago, tengu and kappa were the slaves of the oni. Tenma-sama was allegedly alive for that time, and I heard that she once fought her master - I forget the oni's name - and won her freedom in battle. From there, she started freeing other tengu and kappa, or so I heard. I'm not really sure how true all of that is, but…

_Creak__…_ Oh! Somebody was answering the door! This was really tense and nerve-wracking, and I made a mental note to ask where the bathroom was on my way out. Then the door finished opening, and I could see the person answering it. She was a crow tengu, with short silver hair that had one lock on the left side reaching over her ear and down to her breasts. Her wings were beautiful; even blacker and grander than Aya's, and she had a red sake dish in her hand.

"You must be Momiji."

"Y-Yes, ma'am. I'm here looking for…T-Tenma-sama."

"Well, you found her~"

_GASP!_ "It's an honor to finally meet you in person," I quickly said, getting on my knees. Looking back, I'm not really sure why I kneeled down like that. It just seemed like a respectful thing to do, to be completely honest. "Momiji Inubashiri, tengu guard, at your command, ma'am!"

"Relax~ You're too serious about the whole thing," Tenma-sama said to me, taking me by the hand and pulling me back up to my feet. For just a second there, I was afraid that I wouldn't have to ask about the bathroom anymore. "You look kind of uptight, though, and not in a dutiful way. Something bugging you?"

"Y-Yes, in fact. If you don't mind me asking…where's your restroom?"

"It's down…oh, come in." Tenma-sama took my hand again, this time pulling me into her house. "It's down that hallway," she told me, pointing down one of the three that I was met with the second I walked in. "Third or fourth door on the right, I'm not sure which. I'm a little drunk right now and I tend to forget stuff when I get alcohol in my system."

"Thank you very much," I said, speeding off down the hallway in my frantic attempt to beat my bladder. It was strange. I didn't have to go before I got here, but just being here intimidated me so much that I was asking Tenma-sama herself about it before I even got my orders. It was still so great to finally meet her. She wasn't that much like I'd imagined her, but that was good! I always had this image of a sort of frightening leader who visibly leaked authority and power; it was an image I'd built off of things I heard from Aya. Instead, she was laid-back and seemed to enjoy enjoying life. I wasn't really sure if it was okay for her to be drinking on the job (isn't she always on the job?) but she seemed to hold herself pretty well with alcohol in her system. I counted the doors, one, two…three and four. One of these was the bathroom. Or maybe the bathroom was so big that it was both of them?

* * *

**Girls are now locating/using the restroom****…**

* * *

"Thank you for waiting, Tenma-sama." Now that that was done with, I could focus on what I was called up here for. Was there something that I had to do that would be critical to the entire tengu race? Was I going to get promoted? If Tenma-sama was personally giving me a promotion, then good things were going to come my way; I just knew it. I didn't get my hopes _too_ high up, though. Aya once told me that Tenma-sama told her that she was reminded of herself at a younger age when she saw Aya. That meant that it could be a task so simple that I couldn't possibly think of what it was, or even being called over here just to be teased by the big boss of the tengu. The last one was pretty improbable, but it was best not to rule it out.

"Let's walk and talk," Tenma-sama told me, heading back up the hall and turning down another one, waiting for me to follow.

"You have a really beautiful mansion," I told her now that I had the chance to really see its inside. Red seemed to be the big color for her house, with white furniture and black decorations. It really was beautiful. I wouldn't mind being one of Tenma-sama's personal guards if I got to see this place every day, though I was certain that the day I got _that_ job, if it ever came, was a long way off. It wasn't a very long walk before we were at a room with really soft carpet flooring, and a big red cushion in the back. This must have been where Tenma-sama took on visitors. My suspicions were confirmed when she made herself comfy on the cushion, and told me to make myself comfortable. "If you don't mind my asking, why did you send for me specifically?"

"Because you're extremely dedicated to your job. I have a package that needs to be delivered to an old friend of mine, and I don't really trust most of the other tengu to meet this friend of mine. They might get the wrong idea about the kinds of people I associate with. Now that you know that she's just a friend of mine, hopefully, you won't get the wrong idea as well. Even Aya, your superior, would probably get this wrong idea, and because she's about equal to a tabloid journalist, I can only imagine that ending in disaster. So she recommended you to me~"

"A-A delivery? If you don't mind me asking, unless it's classified, what am I delivering exactly?" And more importantly, why would people get the wrong idea about the kinds of people Tenma-sama associated with? They couldn't be too bad for our wonderful master to enjoy being around them, right?

"The package is a box, filled with the finest alcohol money can buy; special-ordered from the human world. I figured she'd like to see how much humans progressed in the breweries since last she saw them."

"I'll make the delivery immediately," I promised.

"Fantastic! The address is on the box; I don't want to say the place aloud because again, people may get the wrong idea about the company I like to keep. Now then, follow me, and we'll get that package."

"Yes, ma'am."

* * *

**Bet you're wondering who the friend is~**

**There's a really subtle hint or two in the chapter, but they're so hidden that you might not find them unless you consider EVERYTHING a hint!**

**Now then, a couple more points I wanted to address…**

**Astoundingly, this is the very first time I've used the word "hikikomori" in a fanfic. And Patchouli has appeared in quite a few, as well as Kaguya and some of Gensokyo's other expert recluses. And it was used in the direction of Tenma of all people…**

**Speaking of the tengu boss, I made Tenma a woman because even if (s)he's LORD Tenma, I could find no fanart that depicted a male Tenma, so I had no image of him/her in my head that I could work off. Plus it's Touhou, so naturally everybody must be either a girl, dead, a turtle, a cloud, or Rinnosuke. Even Toyosatomimi no Miko, the Crown PRINCE, is a girl!**

**Now then, I should start figuring out how Momiji's gonna react when she meets this friend of Tenma's~**


	2. Chapter 2: Delivery, Part 1

**Sorry to leave everybody hanging! Figuring out how to get my stuff online in the Keys was a bitch, lemme tell you!**

**It took a couple of months, but the library staff and I finally got down to the bottom of the issue. From here on, I suspect smooth sailing and probably my pace gradually returning. This is just one step to curing some depression I'm probably dealing with, so it's pretty important :D**

**I sure hope this chapter was worth the long wait, and I apologize if it doesn't add up to what you were expecting after all this time.**

* * *

"Is this the package, Tenma-sama?" It was kind of hard to believe the address. Room 324, in the Komeiji Hot Springs Resort. That was in Former Hell, where all the oni lived! There were other youkai down there besides oni, of course, but not too many when you put them next to the horned alcohol-loving folks known for their strength and honesty! I hoped that my guess that this was for an oni was rather off. Or perhaps it was a delivery for an oni after all; Tenma-sama _did_ say that she didn't want anybody getting the wrong idea about the kinds of friends she had. Great. I was delivering a package to an oni…

"That's it~ You just bring that to my friend, and I'm sure she'll want to compensate you somehow, even if you tell her its fine. We haven't been in contact for a very long time, and I'm sure she'll be ecstatic to see this package~" Lightly nudging my back with an elbow in a way that reminded me way too much of Aya, Tenma-sama continued "Get going then, Momiji. I'm counting on you."

"Yes, Tenma-sama. I'll have it delivered very soon, I promise." With that, I made my way back through the halls of Tenma-sama's mansion, taking in the scenery inside one more time before I stepped out. I figured that I wouldn't be seeing this place again for a while. It wasn't every day the big boss of all tengu sent out for one simple guard like myself. Maybe I was just being harsh on myself (Aya says I do that a lot) but it _would_ be quite some time before I was called up here again. I'd have to make the memories of the inside of this beautiful mansion last as long as they could. Once I stepped outside though…

"Ayayayaya!"

The instant I heard that voice, I held the package so close to me that I almost had trouble breathing, so that Aya couldn't see the address. Tenma-sama wanted it to stay secret, so I'd guard its secrecy with all my strength. "Hello, Aya."

"Hey, Momiji~" Inspecting me and stopping at the box, she asked me "So you saw Tenma-sama, then? What's in the box?"

"…" Were the contents okay to share? She only said she didn't want people to know who the package was for because they'd get the wrong idea, but she never mentioned if I was allowed to tell people that there was alcohol in here. Sweating a little at the brow, I turned my face away from Aya, and answered "It's a secret. Tenma-sama wants me to keep this box's contents and destination a secret from everyone." I decided to keep the contents secret as well, since leaving that open for discussion probably meant I could choose for myself. Tenma-sama seemed pretty laid-back, so I was sure she wouldn't mind.

"Secret, huh? Then how about I tag along until you get it delivered?"

"N-No! I was ordered by Tenma-sama to keep this package and its destination a secret from everybody, and I wouldn't even tell Tenma-sama herself what's inside if she asked me!" Was this why she chose me specifically? Because I was really _this _dedicated to my job? Well, I didn't really have much else going for me; I didn't have any special powers like lots of the other tengu short of being able to see long distances. But even that could be chalked up to me being a white wolf tengu, while most of the other tengu were some kind of avian tengu, like Aya and Tenma-sama being crow tengu. Since I had no powers like that, I had to push myself extra-hard to make sure I kept up with everybody else. Because of that, some people saw me as kind of weak for a tengu. Even if it wasn't true, that was how some stronger tengu saw it.

"Ooh, a big secret!" Aya's hand went up to her chin. That meant it was time for some teasing, and by association, my inability to tease back and only defend myself. "I can only wonder what Tenma-sama is giving our cute little Miji-chan to deliver in secret? Maybe you're not allowed to open it yourself? Or maybe Tenma-sama never even told you what's inside! Perhaps there are things in there that children aren't allowed to play with~"

"W-What? No, I swear, it's nothing like that at all!"

"Ha-ha~ You just told me what it isn't, didn't you? That means it's not _completely_ confidential anymore~"

"U-Uh…"

"Relax," Aya told me, putting the hand on her chin over to my shoulder. "To tell you the truth, I could care less about what Tenma-sama has you delivering. It's none of my business~" With that, Aya took off before I could remind her that a lot of the things in her newspaper weren't her business either.

"…" She was strange. I knew that much for certain; Aya was a very strange person. At least she had a sense of humor. Putting my attention back to the box in front of me, I came to the realization that if I was going to Former Hell, I might need to fight once or twice along the way. It would be terrible if I lost a fight and somebody stole the box, so I'd have to make certain that didn't happen. My sword and shield were back at my own house; I dropped them off on the way to see Tenma-sama since I wasn't sure if she wanted me to carry them around in her home or not. I'd have to go there, get my equipment, then deliver this box to whoever was supposed to get it. Even so, an oni? According to what I heard, she was the critical figure to _defeating_ the oni and allowing tengu and kappa alike to live freely on Youkai Mountain. Was there more to the story than just that? If only I'd been alive to see it for myself, then I'd probably know…

* * *

**Later; quite a ways down Youkai Mountain****…**

I was equipped, I was carrying a box full of the outside world's finest alcohol, and I was probably going to deliver it to an oni. Probably not my ideal afternoon, but I could hardly complain. My guard post was on the lower parts of Youkai Mountain, closer to the kappa city than that of my own race, so I got to meet lots of kappa, including Nitori. All of the kappa were complete geniuses, but Nitori…absolute prodigy. I'd be willing to bet she was inventing things ever since she was born, and researching all sorts of bizarre science stuff I don't quite understand for decades, if not centuries. Nitori also happened to be my best friend in the world, and there's not a thing I wouldn't do for her. That was why I was so happy to see her blue-clad figure as I got closer to the bottom of the mountain.

"Momiji!" Apparently, she saw me as well. That was great. Unlike Aya, she didn't make anybody else's business her business, so if I told her to leave it be, she'd just drop it and go to the next thing. Lots of other kappa were like that, but there were still nosy ones. Every race seemed to suffer from nosy people. "What's in the box?"

"Classified."

"On an important mission, huh? Mind if I tag along?"

"…" I wanted to say yes. I really did. Nitori wasn't like Aya at all; I could tell her to only follow me part of the way and then leave her, but if it were Aya then I'd probably get stalked in secret until the package was delivered. On the other hand, Nitori was really smart, so if I told her to leave too close to the passage that led to Former Hell, she could probably figure out where I was going and who the package was for. Her skills with reasoning and problem solving reminded me of a character from a manga they sold at Kourindou; a lot of the central characters were really smart. She reminded me of one in particular, but I hadn't read any manga in so long that I forgot the name. It was just one letter, I remembered that much…

"You okay?"

"Yeah, sorry. A bit lost in thought is all. Sure, you can come along, but we have to split up before I deliver this. Tenma-sama wanted me to keep its destination secret."

"T…_Tenma_?" It looked like Nitori was just as surprised as I was about hearing that I got orders straight from Tenma-sama herself. I couldn't blame her really; it was rare that _anybody_ got orders from Tenma-sama, much less a low-ranking guard like me.

"Yeah. I can explain on the way down the rest of the mountain; I'm trying to deliver this as soon as possible." With that, I began leading the way down the remainder of the mountain.

"So you got to see what Tenma looks like? What's he look like? Is he hot?"

"He's a she."

"No way!"

"Yep. Tenma-sama's a woman, and I kind of figured her to be a white wolf tengu like myself, but it turns out she's a crow tengu instead. I bet she's stronger than she looks, though; she doesn't seem much more fit than me if looks decide it all." With the clothes she had on today, I was able to see Tenma-sama's shoulders, but her whole figure actually seemed kind of slim. Not muscular at all. She had to be pretty strong to beat an oni, on the other hand, so I was certain of it that Tenma-sama was stronger than she looked. "She has short silver hair and red eyes, but her wings were this stunning black that sucked in all the light around them and shone like some kind of rare gem…like obsidian or something."

"Obsidian, huh? I was doing something with obsidian today to see if there was any way to use it as an infinite heat source." Nitori looked pretty proud of her experiment. That was good. Three of Nitori's favorite things in life were swimming, dai-shogi, and science. I hate getting my ears and tail wet, so I don't really like to swim, and even though I'm really good at the game, Nitori beats me most of the time at dai-shogi. And of course, I wasn't nearly as good at science as she was. Even so, she loved science the most out of the three, and I was glad to see her so satisfied with her work. "Trying new things is the foundation of science! Unfortunately…"

"What happened with the experiment?"

"It exploded into a million little pieces after I started using it as a power source. There were casualties."

"By Kanako-sama! I'm so sorry!"

"Me too…it takes months to make a good clone, even with the right materials."

"…what?"

"Yeah, it was a clone. You didn't know about the cloning machine in my basement?"

"Nitori, I was in your basement just the other day. There's no cloning machine."

"No, beneath that."

"The NitoriTech warehouse? I thought you swore to never add that kind of thing to your inventory."

"Beneath _that_. The one and only NitoriTech Omni-Protective Bunker. I put a cloning machine in there so that if Gensokyo collapsed and the world remained uninhabitable beyond my lifespan, I could clone myself and live on."

"I see…"

"Anyway, you were saying about Tenma?"

"Oh, right." The whole story about the experiment with the obsidian and the cloning machine made me forget all about my own story! It was kind of understandable, at least. It wasn't every day somebody heard a story like that. Back to my own story, I said "Just today, at about noon, Aya came over to my guard post and told me that Tenma-sama had orders for me. I was kind of shocked and really nervous, and maybe a little scared, and…"

* * *

**Tengu are now telling stories****…**

* * *

"…then you saw me with this box."

"Wow. Sounds like you've had a hell of a day, Momiji."

"Yeah. I think I'll spend the night with the recipient of this box. This is the foot of Youkai Mountain, though, so I can't take you any further without compromising my destination."

"Whoa. You get pretty serious on duty," Nitori said in a manner that reminded me a little too much of Aya. "You should spend tomorrow wherever you end up as well. Come back this way around dinnertime and I'll make you-know-what curry." I could feel my mouth watering up at just the thought. The single-greatest food known to Gensokyo, crafted from ingredients exclusive to a world known as Makai. Any store that can make it in sufficient quantities is bound to have the loyalty of those who can afford it. It was, of course, the legendary pandemonium curry! The spices that gave the curry its flavor were created by a perfect combination of numerous plants that grew only in Makai, and the meat that gave it volume came from rare animals that existed only there. Even in Makai, though, it was an extremely expensive food, and only the wealthiest people in Makai were able to afford it and have money to spare. If Nitori was actually _making_ pandemonium curry, it meant she already had the ingredients! Just how did she get those?

I didn't have time to worry about that. For now, this package bound for Former Hell was my greatest worry. I still was afraid that the recipient was an oni, and as Nitori faded further into the distance, the passage to Former Hell came closer and closer. "Alright," I assured myself. "Time to get down to business! I can't let Tenma-sama down!"

* * *

**The third chapter is at least partially finished, but on the note of the pandemonium curry…**

**I wanted it to be some sort of curry Nitori would prepare, but admittedly, I don't know the first thing about curry. Therefore, it had to be made from stuff that was native and exclusive to Makai so that I could get away with just making stuff up ^_^**

**It's a pretty clever trick that I've actually used before in my writing, so if something doesn't make sense, I probably just made it up :D**

**Like that Yuyu/Mima theory I have going for me…**


End file.
